Life in the Medieval University | Page 2

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Chapter V
--UNIVERSITY DISCIPLINE
Growth of Disciplinary Regulations at Paris and Oxford --Records of
the Chancellor's Court -- Discipline in Unendowed Halls -- Academic
Dress restricted to Graduates -- Louvain -- Leipsic -- Leniency of
Punishments -- The Scottish Universities -- Table Manners at Aberdeen
-- Life at Heidelberg......................................... 94
Chapter VI
--THE "JOCUND ADVENT"
Admission of the Bajan at Paris -- The Universities of Southern France
-- The Abbas Bejanorum -- The "Jocund Advent" in Germany -- the
"Depositio" -- Oxford -- Scotland.. 109
Chapter VII
--TOWN AND GOWN
Vienna -- St Scholastica's Day at Oxford -- Assaults by Members of the
University -- Records of the "Acta Rectorum" at Leipsic -- Parisian
Scholars and the Monks of St Germain.. 124
Chapter VIII

--SUBJECTS OF STUDY, LECTURES, EXAMINATIONS
Instruction given in Latin -- Preparation for the University --Grammar
Masters -- French taught at Oxford -- The "Act" in Grammar --The
Seven Liberal Arts and the Three Philosophies -- Text-books --
Ordinary and Cursory Lectures -- Methods of Lecturing -- Repetitions
and Disputations -- University and College Teaching -- Examinations
at Paris, Louvain, and Oxford -- The Determining Feast -- Walter
Paston at Oxford... 133
APPENDIX..................................................... 157
BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................. 159
INDEX........................................................ 163

LIFE IN THE MEDIEVAL UNIVERSITY (p. 001)
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
"A Clerk ther was of Oxenford also, That unto logik hadde longe y-go
As lene was his hors as is a rake, And he was not right fat, I undertake;
But loked holwe, and therto soberly, Ful thredbar was his overest
courtepy, For he had geten him yet no benefyce, Ne was so worldly for
to have offyce. For him was lever have at his beddes heed Twenty
bokes, clad in blak or reed, Of Aristotle and his philosophye, Than
robes riche, or fithele, or gay sautrye. But al be that he was a
philosophre, Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre; But al that he might of
his freendes hente, On bokes and on lerninge he it spente, And bisily
gan for the soules preye Of hem that yaf him wherwith to scoleye, Of
studie took he most cure and most hede, Noght o word spak he more
than was nede, And that was seyd in forme and reverence And short
and quik, and ful of hy sentence. Souninge in moral vertu was his
speche. And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche."

An account of life in the medieval University might well take the
(p. 002) form of a commentary upon the classical description of a
medieval English student. His dress, the character of his studies and the
nature of his materials, the hardships and the natural ambitions of his
scholar's life, his obligations to founders and benefactors, suggest
learned expositions which might
in judicious hands Extend from here to Mesopotamy,
and will serve for a modest attempt to picture the environment of one
of the Canterbury pilgrims.
Chaucer's famous lines do more than afford opportunities of
explanation and comment; they give us an indication of the place
assigned to universities and their students by English public opinion in
the later Middle Ages. The monk of the "Prologue" is simply a country
gentleman. No accusation of immorality is brought against him, but he
is a jovial huntsman who likes the sound of the bridle jingling in the
wind better than the call of the church bells, a lover of dogs and horses,
of rich clothes and great feasts. The portrait of the friar is still less
sympathetic; he is a frequenter of taverns, a devourer of widows'
houses, a man of gross, perhaps of evil, life. The monk abandons his
cloister and its rules, the friar despises the poor and the leper. The poet
is making no socialistic attack upon the (p. 003) foundations of society,
and no heretical onslaught upon the Church; he draws a portrait of two
types of the English regular clergy. His description of two types of the
English secular clergy forms an illuminating contrast. The noble verses,
in which he tells of the virtues of the parish priest, certainly imply that
the seculars also had their temptations and that they did not always
resist them; but the fact remains that Chaucer chose as the
representative of the parochial clergy one who
"wayted after no pompe and reverence, Ne maked him a spyced
conscience, But Cristes lore, and his apostles twelve, He taughte, but
first he folwed it himselve."
The history of pious and charitable foundations is a vindication of the
truth of the portraiture of the "Prologue." The foundation of a new

monastery and the endowment of the friars had alike ceased to attract
the benevolent donor, who was turning his attention to the universities,
where secular clergy were numerous. The clerks of Oxford and
Cambridge had succeeded to the place held